Catharine Esther Beecher

“ With sympathies that would naturally seek the ordinary lot of woman as the ideal of earthly happiness, with no natural taste for notoriety or public action, with tastes for art, and imaginative and quiet literary pursuits, I have, for all that period, been doing what, as to personal taste, I least wished to do, and leaving undone what I should most like to do. I have been for many years a wanderer without a home, in delicate health, and often baffled in favorite plans of usefulness. ”

“ Here I feel bound to express dissent from the frequent implication that men are alone responsible for the present disabilities and wrongs of woman, owing to a selfish and tyrannical spirit not existing in my sex. There is no nation in the world, and never has been one, in which all classes of men were so trained to honor, protect, and provide for women as in our own. On the contrary, women with us have been trained to expect care and protection, and not to a chivalrous and tender regard for their own sex, such as has been cultivated in brothers, fathers, and husbands. ”

“ But the most important of all the departments of a woman's profession is one for which no college or high-school for women has made any proper provision.
Woman, as mother and as teacher, is to form and guide the immortal mind. She, more than any one else, is to decide the character of her helpless children, both for this and the future eternal life. And for this, liberal provision should be made; so that no woman shall finish her education till all that science and training can do shall be bestowed to fit her for this supernal duty. ”

“ While I would urge these views on the attention of all women who have any influence, I beg leave to suggest other modes by which the same ends may be promoted. Thus, every cultivated woman who dignifies domestic labor, by living in such a style as enables her to work herself, and to train her sons and daughters to work with her, is a co-laborer in this beneficent enterprise. Every woman who goes to her kitchen in the spirit of Christ, by self-denying efforts to train her servants to intelligence, honesty, and benevolence, is another blessed laborer on the same field. ”

“ The great defect in all these institutions, so far as I have observed, is confinement to one special method, and a neglect of enforcing obedience to all the laws of health. For in not even one such institution have I ever known proper arrangements for securing pure air both night and day; while in some the diet is at war with healthful digestion. To these evils add the ignorance of the patients in over-doing, and the want of skill, or care of the physician, and the result has been more mischief than benefit in many cases. ”

“ Instead of following in the rear of public schools, those who have wealth should aim to elevate the public schools by the example of institutions of the highest order for their own daughters. And they also would be doubly blest if they would set an example that should both dignify labor and protect their daughters from helpless poverty should reverses come, by having them trained to some profession by which they could earn an honorable independence. ”

“ Again, there is no agent of the family state who has a more constant, daily influence on the character of childhood than the one who shares with a mother the cares of the nursery. And yet where shall we find an institution in which young women are properly trained for these sacred offices? The heir of an earthly kingdom is surrounded by the noblest and the wisest, who deem the humblest office an honor in his service. ”

“ Should we not say let our well-known, well-beloved friends, come forth from the tomb and live with us again—walk, talk, eat, sleep, and act, as in past times—and this for days and weeks and not alone with us, but with many others who had known them through life? Can we imagine anything to ask more satisfactory than this, to prove that death does not end our existence? ”

“ Thousands of neglected orphans, or worse than orphans, abound on every side. The homeless, the aged, the weak, the sick, and the sinful, also, are all around us.
And how can truly Christian homes be established where there are no young children to train, no aged persons to watch over, no invalids to nurse, and no vicious to reclaim? Why are orphans thrown upon the cold world, and why are the aged held in a useless, suffering life except to furnish opportunities for Christian love and self-sacrifice? ”

“ Can woman's distinctive profession be made a large portion of her school education?
To aid in deciding these questions, the following is given as the ideal at which I have been aiming in efforts to establish a Woman's University; by which I mean, not a large boarding-establishment of pupils removed from parental care, but an institution embracing the whole course of a woman's training from infancy to a self-supporting profession, in which both parents and teachers have a united influence and agency. ”

“ The art and skill of domestic economy can no more be acquired without instruction and training, than any of the mechanical trades. As eldest daughter of a poor minister, and the pupil of a most ingenious mother and a vigorously economical aunt, I know that by proper training, a young lady can dress with taste and propriety at one half the expense required by one untrained; and that a housekeeper without such a preparation needs double the means of one who is properly instructed. ”

“ From the bottom of my soul I hate the idea of meeting women at the polls; and yet, if woman suffrage ever becomes a fact, I can not stay away. For my fraction of power inevitably makes me thus much responsible for the civil government of my country. ”

“ Here I shall avoid all theories and all speculations, and confine myself strictly to the facts taught by Jesus Christ. I shall assume as true the fact revealed by the only person who has died and returned to this life to tell us what awaits us in that dark and silent land toward which we all are hastening; the solemn and dreadful fact that there are such awful dangers in the world to come that the chief end and aim of this life should be to save ourselves and all we can influence, and, if need be, at the sacrifice of every earthly plan and enjoyment. ”

“ I am not qualified to advise as to institutions for men; but the profession and pursuits of women as a sex are to be so widely diverse from those of men that they should secure as diverse methods of training.
I regard the effort to introduce women into colleges for young men as very undesirable, and for many reasons. That the two sexes should be united, both as teachers and pupils, in the same institution seems very desirable, but rarely in early life by a method that removes them from parental watch and care, and the protecting influences of a home. ”

“ A woman who has not genius, or is not a rare exception, has no opening—no promotion—no career. She turns hopelessly on a pivot; at every turn the sand gives way, and she sinks lower. At every turn light and air are more difficult, and she turns and digs her own grave. ”

“ The first reason for believing that the gift of the ballot must be long delayed is, that it is contrary to the customs of Christian people, by which the cares of civil life, and the outdoor and heavy labor which take a man from home, are given to the stronger sex, and the lighter labor and care of the family state, to woman.
The more society has advanced in civilization [6] and in Christian culture, the more perfectly have these distinctive divisions of responsibility for the two sexes been maintained; and in no age or country more strictly than in our own. ”

“ Multitudes of women are now quiet and silent because they have little fear of danger in this direction. But should a time come when the woman suffrage party seem near achieving their aim, there would be measures instituted the power of which, as yet, is little [16] known or appreciated. For they too would organize all over the nation and summon to their aid both the pulpit and the press. All the Catholic clergy, to a man, would lend their influence against a measure so contrary to the tenets and spirit of a church that enforces subordination and obedience as prime virtues. ”

“ Thousands of ladies, of good family and education, as teachers receive from two to six hundred dollars a year. Few women get beyond that, and a large proportion of them are mothers with children. Over these poorly-paid laborers broods the sense of hopeless toil. There is no bright future. The woman who is fevered, hurried, and aching, who works from daylight to midnight, loathing her mean room, her meaner dress, her joyless life, will, in ten years, neither better herself nor her children. ”

“ We began when women were trained to domestic labor, and almost nothing else. We have seen the pendulum swing to the other extreme, till, both in families and schools, women are taught the higher branches, and almost nothing else. We now begin at the other end, and, by the aid and counsel of the judicious women of Hartford, we hope to set an example of a woman's university which shall combine the highest intellectual culture with the highest practical skill in all the distinctive duties of womanhood. ”

“ This is exactly what the believers in the Christian religion claim was done for us when Jesus Christ came and dwelt on earth for thirty-three years, then was slain by enemies determined to prevent his predicted resurrection, and then arose from the dead, bringing life and immortality to light. And why did this good Being come and dwell on earth, then die, and then arise from the dead? It was to teach us not only that an immortal existence stretches before us after death, but that the happiness of that immortality depends on the character which is formed by education here. ”

“ But both men and women have been selfish and sinful, neither party having attained the high ideal of Christianity, and very many have not even understood it so as to aim at it. But it is woman's mission as the educator of the race to remedy the evil, not by giving up the ideal but by striving more and more to conform herself and all under her care to its blessed outlines. And in past times those families have been the most peaceful and prosperous where the wife and mother has most faithfully aimed to obey the teachings of Christ and His Apostles, in this as in every other direction. ”

“ If, on the contrary, women are trained to both the science and the practice of their true profession in all its varied departments, and with the honor and emolument that now are given exclusively to the professions of men, every woman will be in demand for the services of the family and the school, and will regard the employments of men as less important and less inviting than her own sacred ministries.
It is often said that it is mothers who must give the domestic training to daughters, and that school duties should be confined to literature and science. ”

“ The fact that sin and suffering exist in a universe created by a perfectly benevolent, wise, and almighty Being, is proof that "almighty power" is not the power to work contradictions, and therefore in this respect is limited. In the words of my venerated father, "God cannot govern the stars by the ten commandments, nor free agents by the attraction of gravity." This limitation of God's power in governing free agents, is expressly taught in the Bible. For our only idea of power is causing anything by willing it, and want of power is inability to cause a thing by willing it. ”

“ Another and the final reason for believing female suffrage at a distant future is the proposed circuitous and indirect mode of remedying evils which could be relieved by a much more direct and speedy method. As things now are, men have the physical power that can force obedience; in most cases they have the power of the purse, and in all cases, they have the civil power. They can not be forced by the weaker sex to resign this power. It must be sought, then, as the gift of justice and benevolence. ”

“ The American working-woman has no share in the American privilege given to the poorest male laborer—a growing income, a bank account, and every office of the Republic, if he have brain and courage to win them."
This describes the condition and feelings of not all, but of a large class of women in many of our larger cities, who must earn their own livelihood. But, in the medium classes, as it respects wealth, the unmarried or widowed women feel that they are an incumbrance to fathers and brothers, who often unwillingly support them from pride or duty. ”

“ In this most interesting passage we find that the family state is the emblem to represent Jesus Christ and the Church—the Church "which is the great company of faithful people" in all ages and all lands—those who are appointed to guide and save the world—the true educators of our race, who, by self-denying labors are to train men for Heaven. Of this body the Apostles teaches that Jesus Christ is the head—those whom He has redeemed by His labor and sacrifice, and who are to train as His children all whom they can rescue from ignorance and sin, by similar labor and sacrifice. ”

“ In the more wealthy circles, the murderous fashions of dress make terrible havoc with the health of young girls, while impure air, unhealthful food and condiments, lack of exercise, and over-stimulation of brain and nerves, are completing the ruin of health and family hopes.
The state of domestic service is another element that is undermining the family state. Disgraced by the stigma of our late slavery, and by the influx into our kitchens of ignorant and uncleanly foreigners, American women forsake home circles for the unhealthful shops and mills. ”

“ The Roman Catholic Church, while it honored the institution of marriage as a sacrament, and upheld its sanctity, yet taught that woman had a still higher ministry; and for this, large endowments, comfortable positions, and honorable distinction, were provided. The women who devoted their time and wealth and labors to orphans, to the sick, and to the poor, were honored above married women as saints, who not only laid up treasures in heaven for themselves, but also a stock of merits to supply the deficiencies of others. ”

“ Now at the present day, when mothers and housekeepers meet gentlemen in social gatherings, is there anything in their conversation and pursuits to show the superior advantages of the female High Schools and Colleges, which have nearly supplanted the intellectual domestic training of a former generation? Have not novels, magazine stories, newspaper literature, and the fashions and accomplishments of the age taken the place of the more vigorous mental culture so common at a former period? ”

“ The reports of similar institutions for men all over the nation would show similar liberal benefactions of women to endow institutions for the other sex, while for their own no such records appear. Where is there a single endowment from a woman to secure a salary to a woman teaching her own proper profession?
It is the depressed and suffering condition of our sex, here indicated, which is the exciting cause of the agitation to gain woman suffrage. To me, success in this effort appears not as a remedy, but rather as a curse. ”

“ Still more unjust is the custom which gives superior advantages to men for the scientific and practical training for a profession by which an honorable independence may be secured and almost none at all are provided for women. So also in the distribution of public offices of trust and emolument which secure an income from the civil state, there are several in which woman can perform the duties as well or better then men, especially in the care of schools, hospitals, jails, and all public institutions of benevolence. ”

“ If the best good of society requires women to be law-makers, judges and juries, she has a right to these offices; if it does not, she has no right to them. As to taxation, it is probable that the best good of society does require that women holding property shall have the ballot, for this would increase the proportion of responsible and intelligent voters, and not add a mass of irresponsible and ignorant ones, as would universal woman suffrage. ”

“ The factory-girls, and those in shops and stores, must stand six, eight, or ten hours a day in bad air and unwholesome labor. The influx of ignorant and uncleanly foreigners into our kitchens, and the exactions of thriftless young housekeepers from boarding-schools, drive self-respecting American women from many of our kitchens.
Meantime, in our more wealthy classes, those who have generous and elevated aspirations feel that they have no object in life—no profession, like their brothers, by which they can secure [52] their own independence, and aid in elevating others. ”

“ For any men who would give up the law-making power to women in order to remedy existing evils, would surely be those most ready to enact the needful laws themselves.
The woman suffrage party is so extensively organized, with such energetic and persistent leaders and such ably conducted papers and tracts, that those of our sex who are opposed to this measure begin to feel disturbed and anxious lest it should finally be consummated. ”